Extracurricular activities

I'm curious about others' views on the number of extracurricular activities children do.

My 6yo will be doing 4 this term, which I'm not thrilled about. I kind of prefer her to have down time outside of school and think this will be way too much. She does swimming (not optional, for safety), dance, music and now wants to try little athletics.

I think she'll feel swamped. But they're not activities you can easily substitute for one another. So we'll see how we go, but I think we'll go back down to two after this term. Interested in what others with kids of a similar age do.

Extracurricular activities

Let her try and see how she goes but my DS from year 1 did something every afternoon , now at at 9 (year 4) he does swimming squad Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday afternoons ,Drama on Thursdays and basketball training Friday’s , he’s home by 5pm at the latest and relaxes for an hour, does homework while I’m getting dinner ready at 6 , in bed by 7.30 reading and usually asleep by 8.15 - they have tons of energy and if they enjoy it go for it!

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Extracurricular activities

Originally Posted by Kalina

I'm curious about others' views on the number of extracurricular activities children do.

My 6yo will be doing 4 this term, which I'm not thrilled about. I kind of prefer her to have down time outside of school and think this will be way too much. She does swimming (not optional, for safety), dance, music and now wants to try little athletics.

I think she'll feel swamped. But they're not activities you can easily substitute for one another. So we'll see how we go, but I think we'll go back down to two after this term. Interested in what others with kids of a similar age do.

My youngest daughter not long turned 7. Last year she did gymnastics and little athletics. This year she wanted to stop gymnastics and do swimming lessons again even though she can swim and she does little athletics . Remember that little athletics is a summer sport and coming to an end very soon. She’s also keen on doing roller skating classes. We go roller skating a bit so she wants to learn how to do it properly. I don’t encourage her to do any more than that as I have 2 other children who also do extra curricular activities (football, touch football, athletics, gymnastics, dancing) plus my son learns an instrument at school during school time and does band practice one morning a week. My son and eldest daughter have expressed an interest in swimming squads as they always do well at their school swimming carnival and make it to the next level. We will see. At this stage we have no commitments on Mondays and Tuesdays and that’s how I like it

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I would personally find 4 activities a week to be a bit much for both DS and myself. I work full time and I'm just not up for running around excessively after school/work.

At the moment we only have one activity - basketball lessons on a Saturday morning. DS has expressed interest in doing a drama class as well, but we might take that on next term (we'll stick with the basketball as well).

I would say 3 activities would be my max. I don't have any family close by that can take him to any classes and my DH is a shift worker, so the responsibility to get him to/from any activity falls on me.

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It would be too much for us as well. Ds1 (7) does swimming and jiu jitsu twice a week and that’s a stretch for us.

I think he could possibly cope with more but Ds2 (1) and I couldn’t. A lot of activities start at 5 which is dinner time and the run down to bedtime for us. On days he doesn’t have an activity we usually go for a walk/bike ride after dinner to get the whole family moving.

DH goes away for work a lot so cannot be relied on for the run around.

I had no idea that little athletics was only a summer thing - that may take the choice away so make the whole question redundant.

I don't have family nearby either, so will be doing all the ferrying. I can do it now while I'm on mat leave, but dd1 knows that once I'm back at work it won't be possible to do as much.

I briefly looked at Little Aths but they expect major parent participation and it just wasn't going to work with a toddler in tow! Like you, no one else to help out.

I let DD do heaps when I was on Mat leave with DS, it was a great chance for her to try out lots of things and see what she liked/didn't. She could also have a day off if she was getting to tired. All that can't hapoen be once you're back at work!

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Like others I couldn’t do 4 but I have three kids so it means multiple activities and entertaining little people out (I hated night activities with a baby in winter!). Now both my oldest are at school I’m thankful they have chosen the same activities so they are doing dancing 4-5pm one night a week and little athletics Sat mornings 8.30-11am when thankfully hubby is home(and 2 year old does swimming when they’re at school). As someone mentioned little ath is very much a sport run by parent helpers although in our experience how they manage this varies from club to club. Luckily my little one has coped ok with watching but she is older and it may be different next season when we have a bub due in August. Our season usually runs from Oct-Easter.

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Extracurricular activities

We have no family help either. At my kids’ little athletics club they charge a $30 family helper levy. Then they roster each age group on different things (canteen, helping set up etc) It’s not every week even though I have 3 kids. If you help out on your rostered days, they refund your helper levy.

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I guess so much depends on the child. Also - and perhaps this is more about me - I'm really enjoying having time to just be together while I'm on mat leave, slow ambles home from school, playing, hanging out with my two girls of an afternoon. That's why I scheduled two of the activities on the one day, so that we still have three weekday afternoons to ourselves.

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